So if they’re not making much above minimum wage, tell me again what their union is doing for them?

Shed that overhead and work for yourself.

I’d bet the union rank and file still gets theirs kicked all the way back to the top. Legally, of course. I say go ahead and strike if you so choose. Make it that much easier to be replaced. How did that work out for Hostess? (I know the upper management was to blame as well for Hostess.) Can someone show how much the rank and file has taken a cut in pay, other than reduced dues? Somehow, some way, someday, they might understand you can’t get money the city doesn’t have. You can talk about a strike, making a stand, etc., but you can’t pay a bill if you don’t have the money.

Dave Germainee

Fraud? In the Detroit pension system? Say it ain’t so ...

James Mortiere

Every time someone says, “We don’t need an emergency manager in Detroit!” something like this comes out. Again. An EM may not be the best solution for the city’s myriad problems, but it seems to be the one that is finally forcing some long overdue action on the decades of mismanagement, neglect and corruption that’s plagued us. Staying on our pre-EM course wasn’t getting anything fixed. It’s a shame this fix is coming with a price tag that penalizes rank and file retirees instead of the trustees and government officials who got us into this mess, but it’s time for a fix that lets the city, state and region go forward.

Tracey Morris

A lot of unsympathetic posters must be either independently wealthy or not trying to get by on small pensions and what Social Security provides. Perhaps their company relies on demographics that do not directly depend on these people to survive. But perhaps if they understood how we are all interrelated, they might be more understanding how kicking the props under older and more helpless people only increases the cost to the selfish posters overall; it does not reduce the costs to them. All of us are on the hook for some outrageous pensions we have not funded properly while everyone went to the lake instead of paying attention to public business as they are supposed to. Finger-pointing now won’t help. All of us made the promises to the workers and unions have nothing to do with it in terms of that. So, all of us need to work towards solutions the workers can live with and we can pay for. This “sorry, Charlie!” attitude is off-base and demeans those who hold such self-centered views in this day and age.

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John F. Mertz

The question is, who should get the proverbial haircut? To me, the answer is simple: Let the people with long hair and lots of it get the haircut, not the people who are bald or have little hair to begin with. In the former category fall the the financial firms and investors who hold the city’s bonds, whereas, in the latter category, fall the retirees and employees of the city of Detroit. I hope Mr. Orr would keep that in mind while making the cutbacks. “You can’t draw blood from a turnip.” Therefore, it would be imprudent to expect the retirees and the employees to bail out the City of Detroit. Speaking of bailouts, why can’t the State of Michigan and the federal government bail out the City of Detroit?

Pradeep Srivastava

Perhaps the answers to the pension debacle will come to light. I wonder how many hands are going to be caught in the cookie jar.

Brian Brickley

I think this situation reflects the fact that for many years, unions have received far more than what the city can afford. Same thing happened with the auto companies. In the end, I think it will be just as bad for city unions as it ended up being for Hostess. A pitiful, no-win situation.

Rich Stringer

The corrupt practices are not the No. 1 problem. We're outnumbering the current work force two to three times times.

Larry Gentry

The politicians who have been ensconced in power for 45 years have created such horrible financial and societal devastation in the city that the corrections will be the most painful imagined, for they are the only way back.